Metabolism
by Meats
Summary: I'm trying to run away from my past, but it has long legs and issues up the asshole. {Pre TG timeline}
1. Chapter 1

R&R

* * *

 _"I've been having these dreams lately."_

"It's the same one every time. I'm waking down a street in a town I don't recognize, and the further I go I get the feeling I'm being followed – but when I look over my shoulder, nothing is there.

So I keep walking, and walking.

The farther I go, the more I feel inclined to look behind me. I get a grave sinking feeling in my stomach that whoever or whatever is following me won't stop until it's a breath away.

I don't know what it wants with me. I don't how to deal with it.

And even if I run away, eventually it catches up to me. I can't get away."

"It sounds like you've been dealing with a lot of anxiety. Why do you think that is?"

"...I don't know."

"Do you still get these dreams?"

"Yes."

"And nothing ever changes in these dreams?"

"Sometimes there's a car where there wasn't, or it's a different season."

Dr. Kain watched his patient ball her fingers into a painful fist and then relax.

"What made you bring it up in our session?"

There was something different about her today. Her voice was cool and collected but her body language said otherwise. He knew her to be a charming woman, not the restless mess that was before him.

"Something happened yesterday night. I was walking, same as usual but when I turned around it wasn't there."

"That's good. Then what happened."

"My neighbor's dog woke me up, and...I saw something in the corner of my room - _it_ was there, watching me."

 _Ah, so that's what's bothering her._

"Hallucinations are a cause for concern, Nikaido. How long ago was your last episode?"

"Since I entered the room..."

Dr. Kain stopped scribbling his notes and averted his gaze to her.

"Is it here with us now?"

Nikaido sat across from him, unresponsive. Her eyes were glazed with tears and he suspected she was having an anxiety induced episode of some kind, but he couldn't be any more wrong.

She just didn't want to acknowledge _it_ behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

_When admiring other gardens don't forget to tend to your own flowers._ \- Sanober Khan

"Hey. I notice you wear that bracelet everyday."

Rose didn't look away from her book and retained an apathetic face despite the many stares of her classmates.

"You don't talk much do you?"

A chime of jealous whispers spread throughout the room while all eyes were trained on the back of her head.

 _Who does she think she is?_

 _Why is Takume talking to that garbage bag?_

 _She should just drop out of school and kill herself instead of burdening all of us with her presence._

Takume Satou, the school's heart throb, ignored the daisy chain of gossip and patiently waited for the lovely girl's reply – too bad there was none.

Rose turned the page in her chapter book, lost in blissful ignorance when Takume took a seat in the vacant desk beside her. He eyed her small face like a painting and let his imagination wander.

Rose Kamiya.

A transfer student who came to Ryoo Academy half way through the semester. Talk of her beauty spread across the school like wild fire but no one seemed to care enough to approach her considering the intense stigma against _hafu_ s. Her almond eyes and blonde hair were indicative of her mixed race and usually the reason for her status as an outcast – but none of that mattered to Takume. Beauty is beauty. Plus her being an outcast only made his actions even more gossip-worthy.

"I know you don't have any friends and maybe you like it that way, but I was wondering if you wanted to go out later?" He spoke with a smooth tone that made all the girls in class warm and fuzzy inside.

It wasn't his first time asking a girl on a date but it sure as hell was the first time he actually meant it. Rose was cute and he wanted to have a girlfriend in time for the Senior Ball. Takume wanted a memorable last year as a high school student and he didn't mind having an underclass girlfriend if it was someone as pretty as her. Rose was sure to be the best-looking girl there and who knows, maybe she could benefit from the publicity and come out as the most popular girl in school. It was a win-win situation.

"Sorry, I'm busy."

 _Ding-dong-dang._

The school bell rung so loud Takume almost missed her response.

The screech of chair legs skidding across the floor went over his head as he sat there staring into the blank eyes of Class A's garbage bag. He could tell she didn't hold any hate or disgust in her tone but there was something annoying about how indifferent she was.

In the midst of his dumbfounded daze, Rose's Calculus teacher strolled into the room yelling at the students to take their seats.

"Mr. Sato?" The teacher called him out.

Takume's dark eye brows furrowed in confusion but they never left Rose's face.

"I believe your class is upstairs."

The teacher rested his hands on his hips ready to chastise the boy need be, but before that happened Takume got out of his seat and cleared his throat loud enough for the whole class to hear, not that they weren't already listening.

"I really adore you," He spoke clearly and sincerely, "so I hope you don't mind if I come back and ask you again."

Rose shrugged her shoulder. She really wished he wouldn't. "Okay, but my answer won't change."

Takume nodded and replied with a light chuckle.

"Neither will mine."

* * *

The rest of the day went by as usual and by the time Rose got home, it felt like the entire Takume incident didn't even happen.

She dropped her book bag on her office desk and organized all its contents neatly according to their size and shape. Her time followed a strict schedule set by her den mother, and after years of repetition she forgot what it felt like to stray from the norm.

Takume's confession was something she never anticipated and hoped to never repeat, but she had to admit he kinda got to her. After all, it was hard to hate a face like that.

A light knock at her door broke her concentration and the door to her bedroom opened without her acknowledgment. There were no locks of any kind allowed in the house and consequently, if someone had a secret worth hiding it wouldn't take long for the higher ups to uncover whatever you were trying to conceal.

In the end, it's safer when dogs didn't hide their claws from their owner.

"I have you're assignment for tonight."

A tall, older male walked into her room with two books in hand like a lawyer passing out serving notices. He was a humorless man and besides his name Rose didn't know a thing about him.

"Thanks Barry." She received the hefty books with two hands and watched the man stalk out of the room without another word.

Once she heard the door close Rose placed the books on her desk, adding to the pile of homework she had to finish tonight. Every day at around seven in the afternoon, Barry came to her door with an assignment for her to complete. According to him it was "for her own good," whatever that meant.

It was going to be her fifteenth birthday soon and for the longest time she's been living like a robot doing things without regret or question. This was the only life she knew so she didn't make any efforts to change it but after today's events Rose had a feeling this bump in the road would turn into something more substantial.

Rose shed her school uniform and replaced it with comfy clothes. She sat down at her desk, and flipped open one of her assigned books.

 _The Many Essays of Sigmund Freud_

Rose pushed her chair closer to her desk and started to read.


End file.
